Word: rusk
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Full Assistance. The U.S. Government was outraged. Secretary of State Rusk fired off a wire to Lechin holding him personally responsible for the hostages' safety. An angry President Johnson immediately offered the Bolivian government "full assistance"-whatever it wanted, including arms and men-to secure the prisoners' release. In Bolivia there was talk of helicopter-equipped U.S. Army Special Forces troops standing by in Panama, ready to fly to Bolivia for a lightning rescue...
Banked Fires. The chief bond between them now is need-for Johnson plainly needs Rusk's savvy. U.S. politicians have proclaimed a month-long "moratorium" until the Johnson Administration gets oriented, and there is similar talk of a "lull" in foreign affairs. Rusk and Johnson ignore the talk, remembering that Kennedy thought he would have six months to get on his feet, but had to cope with Laos, the Bay of Pigs and Khrushchev's Berlin ultimatum before his Administration was five months...
...reaction in the U.S. and freeze the tentative thaw that Kennedy was encouraging. Anxious to size up Johnson in a face-to-face meeting, the Russians have already begun pressuring for a summit, possibly next spring in Stockholm. For the moment, Johnson wants no part of it. Neither does Rusk, unless some progress is made on such specific items as the opening of consular offices in several U.S. and Soviet cities or the establishment of air routes. But the British, who seem ready to go to the summit every Monday, Wednesday and Friday...
...think there's much question but what the Secretary of State will play a much bigger role than he did under President Kennedy." For one thing, Johnson has no Vice President to act as his emissary abroad, thus is likely to ask Rusk to do so. Even so, Rusk is no more likely to change his way of doing things than Johnson is to drop his drawl. He will be meticulous, even somewhat plodding when necessary. "It can be a tedious job no matter how glamorous it looks," he says. "We don't deal with great issues...
Looking ahead, Rusk believes that the world is on "the front edge of change," and that policies, consequently, will be fluid. "Kennedy's foreign policy was not frozen, nor will our policies now be frozen," he says. He maintains that there will be continuity, since "it is important, for example, for Moscow to know that we stand by our commitments just as solidly as before." But "continuity does not rule out fresh approaches to fresh situations," he adds. "The most important thing is to get on with our work. Every piece of unfinished business is potentially dangerous...